netbox/docs/administration/housekeeping.md

Housekeeping

NetBox includes a housekeeping management command that should be run nightly. This command handles:

• Clearing expired authentication sessions from the database
• Deleting changelog records older than the configured retention time
• Deleting job result records older than the configured retention time
• Check for new NetBox releases (if RELEASE_CHECK_URL is set)

This command can be invoked directly, or by using the shell script provided at /opt/netbox/contrib/netbox-housekeeping.sh.

Scheduling

Using Cron

This script can be linked from your cron scheduler's daily jobs directory (e.g. /etc/cron.daily) or referenced directly within the cron configuration file.

sudo ln -s /opt/netbox/contrib/netbox-housekeeping.sh /etc/cron.daily/netbox-housekeeping

!!! note

On Debian-based systems, be sure to omit the `.sh` file extension when linking to the script from within a cron directory. Otherwise, the task may not run.

Using Systemd

First, create symbolic links for the systemd service and timer files. Link the existing service and timer files from the /opt/netbox/contrib/ directory to the /etc/systemd/system/ directory:

sudo ln -s /opt/netbox/contrib/netbox-housekeeping.service /etc/systemd/system/netbox-housekeeping.service
sudo ln -s /opt/netbox/contrib/netbox-housekeeping.timer /etc/systemd/system/netbox-housekeeping.timer

Then, reload the systemd configuration and enable the timer to start automatically at boot:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now netbox-housekeeping.timer

Check the status of your timer by running:

sudo systemctl list-timers --all

This command will show a list of all timers, including your netbox-housekeeping.timer. Make sure the timer is active and properly scheduled.

That's it! Your NetBox housekeeping service is now configured to run daily using systemd.